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The Media Encyclopedia Wikia
Welcome to The Media Encyclopedia Wikia “The Media Encyclopedia. An exploration of the social norms that exist within digital media,” will be a study in the interaction of social norms and new media. Throughout The Media Encyclopedia, there will be two different types of articles: long and stub. Long articles present broad scope social norms and how they have transitioned from before media dominated social interactions. Stub articles showcase the social norms that standardized customary and acceptable practices on the internet. Project Description Our project will specifically challenge, debate, and given reason to the current shift of social normalities in media use. We plan to create an encyclopedia that catalogs each norm as an entry on a wiki. Each individual “information entry” or mini article will discuss a different norm and how it affects our society. Then, we will analyze the affordances and hindrances provided by each media type and how it affects usual social interaction. Through research, we will select what we believe to be the most important shifts and highlight these in our project. The goal for the project is to, after establishing the fundamental norms, open the wiki to outside promotion, critique, and ideas. Privacy The issue of privacy has been widely influenced by the introduction of social media and the internet. With the rise of social media, more and more personal information is made accessible, whether you want it to be or not. This article will address the social norms associated with direct and indirect privacy compromises with the rise of social media. Using Facebook icons, this portion of the article will show how a user can control their privacy setting directly, and how the functions of these buttons change the way people interact online. Starting with the location symbol (Figure 1), people can now tell where someone posted a status or sent a message. Innovations like this come with their positives and negatives, swaying from the status quo, and thus the way people interact online will cause a reaction. For location services, the positives are clear; your Facebook friends can now see where you are in your message or status without having to state it. This slightly changes the norms in how people act online, as it makes things easier and quicker; however, the consequences create more profound changes for Facebook users. The problems stem from ignorance, which then turns into misinterpretation. Essentially it is socially normal ''for Facebook to add features, such as the new lock button, and not explain them to their user base (Kuzma, 2016). Thus, groups such as teens get classified as careless with their privacy on social media which is not actually true (Marwick & Boyd, 2014). What is actually apparent is how they are not educated of the risks, or sometimes the risks are unavoidable. As Marwick and Boyd say, teens “are trying to be ''in ''public without always ''being public.” This shows how it has become normal, ''and sometimes even necessary to be public with information to have an active presence online. This is opposed to not long ago when social interactions were not dominated by online interactions. The introduction of social media to the internet has altered what people view as ''normal ''privacy in references to what they can control. Now that we have looked at how the internet has resulted in users directly compromising their own privacy, we will look at how user privacy is indirectly compromised and exploited by others. The primary difference here is the misunderstanding of privacy within a user base. A more frequent issue is the misconception that safety and security equal privacy. Contrarily, when people are made to feel safe by online websites, they increase their risky behaviour on the internet thus ''decreasing ''their potential privacy (Mills, 2015). This has never been more apparent than with the Ashley Madison scandal. The website essentially runs as a dating site for married people, allowing for added secrecy and accessibility to affairs. Despite the questionable (at best) ethics of the website, it was hugely successful until the hacking of the page. These people, exploited by their “online courage” and false sense of security, had their privacy completely relinquished (Mills, 2015). Those two factors are incredibly important in understanding how changing norms allow for people’s privacy to be exploited. “Online Courage” is the random and unprecedented confidence a person gets when ‘hiding’ behind a computer interface. That itself is a change in ''normal ''human interaction that results in more susceptibility to privacy exploitation. But, and maybe more importantly in regard to exploitation, false sense of security has become a major problem with user privacy. Websites like Ashley Madison promise security of all information, which leads to users being much more open about information that would have never before been publicly accessible. This promise which can never be kept (because let’s be clear, nothing is safe on the internet), then allows for hackers to exploit the new social norms of people as a result of internet involvement. Ultimately, the issue with privacy and the internet is that all communication requires an intermediate, and thus privacy is compromised indirectly, no matter how safe the user believes they are. As the internet becomes a more influential portion of a human’s life and social capacity, the less privacy allotted to the person. This results in many ''social norm ''changes of internet users. These changes can both increase and decrease the privacy of a person depending on how much they understand the limits of internet security. Internet users, specifically those on social media, can safeguard themselves against the releasing of their personal information by clearly understanding the ‘Terms and Services’ of each of the websites they use. It is important that people carefully choose what they post online and use caution when releasing private information. With a rise in information hacking, only individual users can provide themselves the most security. References Kuzma, Joanne. "Empirical study of privacy issues among social networking sites." ''Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology 6.2 (2011): 74+. LegalTrac. Web. 27 Feb. 2016. Marwick, Alice E, and Danah Boyd. “Networked privacy: How teenagers negotiate context in social media.” New ''Media & Society ''16.7 (2014): 1051-1067. ''Sage Journals. ''Web. 24 ''Feb. 2016. Mills, David. “Ashley Madison and the Psychology Behind Misbehaving on the Internet.” Healthline. 23 August 2015. Web. 22 March 2016. Cyberbullying Bullying has been a serious problem that has plagued children’s playgrounds for decades. It is not a modern phenomenon for a group of kids to ridicule and harass their peers. In the last few years, the internet has become more accessible and purposed towards children. This has driven an increased amount of bullying incidents in online social platforms. Social media, online games, forums, and chat rooms are common places for very serious incidents; sometimes crossing the line into criminal offences. Additionally, cyberbullying has been proven to be a common cause for “depression, anxiety, reduced self-esteem, self-harm, emotional distress, and suicidal ideation” (Randa, Nobles & Reyns, 2015). Unfortunately, this form of bullying is becoming a social norm and is dangerously close to becoming an international epidemic. Some scholarly articles suggest that cyberbullying, in its nature, is the same as traditional bullying but in an electronic format. In essence it is simply “bullying in cyberspace (para. 6).” Traditional bullying, however, has been dealt with more effectively. Various school programs, counselling and, in extreme cases, the police have been able to monitor, punish, and assist those involved in incidents of ''in-person bullying. Cyberbullying has one very distinct quality from traditional bullying: it allows for a constant onslaught of harassment across various mediums. Also, school administration does not have the same jurisdiction to govern or monitor online interactions as it does on school property. A victim of cyberbullying cannot easily forget or separate them self from a situation but is forced to handle a seemingly unending and undisturbed form of bullying. And with the integration of technology into our normal lives, the opportunity for cyberbullying increases. Research shows that traditional bullying and cyberbullying are not independent from one another and, in almost all cases, those that experience bullying online are also victimized at school (Randa, Nobles & Reyns, 2015). As cyberbullying begins to dominate discussions of education policy making and crime prevention for youth, incidents in post-secondary education are being largely overlooked. No study suggests that gender is a contributing factor to traditional bullying and that both boys and girls experience a similar level of bullying during school ages. This, however, is different for cyberbullying, especially as the age of the sample population increases (Faucher, Jackson & Cassidy, 2011). In higher education settings, young women are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying. This does not suggest that men are entirely non-victimized, but reports also indicate that men are more likely to be the perpetrators of cyberbullying. Based on the research conducted by Faucher, Jackson and Cassidy, most of these themes of cyberbullying are continued from middle school through to university. Bullying that occurs both online and in-person raises serious concerns in terms of social psychology and mental health effects. Based on conducted research, it would appear that cyberbullying is not independent of traditional bullying, but an extension of it. Often similar content is expressed, with the spreading of rumours, issuing of threats, racism, sexism, and homophobia. The real concern lies in the fact that approximately one in five youth experience cyberbullying (Randa, Nobles & Reyns, 2015). It is unknown if more children have the confidence to report incidents or if there is a rise in incidents, but the research results raise a possible solution. It is not necessarily the only reason but there is a suggestion that anonymity plays a role in the large number of cyberbullying incidents. Online users are now able to express often hurtful opinions on social media without the need for psychical confrontation. This is a major shift in the normal issues of bullying. Systematic bullying and harassment are able to occur with seemingly zero consequences. It is not proven that anonymity increases the amount of cyberbullying but it does allow for more people to participate, possibly increasing the effectiveness of it (Barlett, 2015). This also creates a legal struggle. Police officers and school administration are having a problem with discovering who the responsible parties are. As legislation modernizes and allows for the proper authorities to handle the situations, concerns have been raised about freedom of expression and thought. Some critics suggest that the removal of online anonymity infringes on basic civil rights. It is unclear how courts will decide these matters, due to a lack of precedence. However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says that freedom of speech does not extend to the spread hate or harm another person. This could be an important component of future laws concerning internet activity in Canada. All of these factors lead to a shift how we must attack bullying problems. That being said, with the cross over between online and offline bullying the normal culprit may not be shifting. But with the increase in anonymity, the normal ''amounts and problems associated with bullying is changing. References Barlett, Christopher P. "Anonymously Hurting Others Online: The Effect of Anonymity On Cyberbullying Frequency." Psychology of Popular Media Culture 4.2 (2015): 70-79. PsycARTICLES. Web. Faucher, Chantal, Margaret Jackson, and Wanda Cassidy, “Cyberbullying among University Students: Gendered Experiences, Impacts, and Perspectives,” ''Education Research International 2014 (2014): 1-10. Web. Randa, Ryan, Matt Nobles, and Bradford Reyns. “Is Cyberbullying a Stand Alone Construct? Using Quantitative Analysis to Evaluate a 21st Century Social Question.” Societies 5.1 (2015): 171–186. CrossRef. Web. Stub Articles Writing in All Caps Facebook Likes Group Polarization What Has Snapchat Changed? The Effects of the Group The Need for Virility and Copycatting Where do you go first with ideas? Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Wikia's Video Library. Category:Browse Category:Articles Category:Discussion Boards